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Rarity
Rarity is a female unicorn pony and one of the main characters of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. She is Sweetie Belle's older sister and the love interest of Spike. Rarity works as both a fashion designer and as a seamstress at her own shop in Ponyville, the Carousel Boutique. She has a white Persian cat named Opalescence. She represents the element of generosity. Unlike Twilight Sparkle, she only uses her magic for activities related to her special talent and for basic tasks such as holding and carrying items or finding gems. Development and Design Lauren Faust was inspired to create Rarity by her childhood toy G1 ponies Glory and Sparkler. Rarity uses Glory's color scheme, Sparkler's cutie mark and appearance, and some mannerisms of G3 Rainbow Dash, like the Trans-Atlantic English accent and a tendency to flip her mane and say "darling". She shares her name with a G3 pony who was voiced by Cathy Weseluck, who currently voices Spike in the new series. She shares some personality traits with the G1 pony named Melody. Rarity's eye design is less frequently used than most other designs: Lotus Blossom and Aloe share the same eye design as Rarity, including color, shape and design of upper and lower eyelashes. During running sequences Lemon Hearts has the same eye shape as Rarity as well. In The Best Night Ever, Rarity puts fake eyelashes on before going to the Grand Galloping Gala. She is seen wearing fake eyelashes again in MMMystery on the Friendship Express while being interrogated by Twilight Sparkle. Rarity's dressmaking shop, the Carousel Boutique, is designed after a toy of the My Little Pony line sold by Hasbro. In Lauren Faust's "pitch bible" for the show, the boutique was named the Carousel Couture, and it specialized in carousel-inspired designs. Rarity was originally the "Element of Inspiration", but this was considered "too tough for kids to wrap their heads around." Faust stated that Audrey Hepburn was her biggest influence on Rarity. Personality Love of beauty When Rarity meets Twilight Sparkle for the first time, she is busy decorating Ponyville's pavilion for the Summer Sun Celebration. As soon as Rarity turns to look at Twilight, she expresses concern for Twilight's messy mane and practically forces on her the first of many makeovers while the besotted Spike looks on. Rarity cares for her own beauty as well. She tries to show up Trixie in Boast Busters by making herself a dress from Trixie's curtain, but Trixie retaliates by ruining Rarity's mane, making her burst into tears and run away. Rarity is also particular about her cleanliness: she panics while trying to avoid getting muddy in Look Before You Sleep and tries to keep herself from getting soaked in the rain to avoid it messing up her mane. This causes some conflict with her friend Applejack, who is, by contrast, not at all bothered about getting muddy or wet. Her fashion consciousness extends even to times of peril: in Dragonshy, she wears a scarf on the way to the dragon's lair, wondering if she should carry a tiara to match. She indulges in a full spa treatment with Fluttershy in Green Isn't Your Color as part of their "weekly get-together", and she puts on eyelash extensions as part of her gala preparations in The Best Night Ever. In MMMystery on the Friendship Express, she wears false eyelashes, and in the latter part of the episode, she wears her hair in such a way to prevent this becoming known to her friends, having lost one of them while trying to make her escape from Pinkie Pie. Love of being under the spotlight Rarity expresses admiration of Fluttershy's grace and poise during Green Isn't Your Color and implores Fluttershy to model her clothing despite the fact that Fluttershy doesn't enjoy putting herself in front of others and only asks her because Photo Finish is scheduled to come photograph her work. When Rarity loses the spotlight to Fluttershy, she attempts to overcome her envy and remain very supportive of Fluttershy. However, the same could be said of Rainbow Dash and Rarity in Sonic Rainboom. After Rainbow Dash expresses disappointment that the others would not be able to go to Cloudsdale to cheer her on in the Best Young Flyer competition, Rarity insists that they all find a way to go there and support her, and has Twilight test a spell on her that would allow her to fly in Cloudsdale. Rarity gains a lovely pair of butterfly-like wings thanks to this spell, but steals the spotlight, showing them off to everyone and even entering the competition herself, sending Rainbow Dash into a nervous breakdown. Rarity eventually falls from the sky after burning her wings from flying too close to the sun, much like Icarus of Greek legend. Rainbow Dash spots Rarity as she falls and flies to save her, performing a sonic rainboom in the process. Rarity later apologizes to Rainbow Dash for her behavior and calls her the greatest flier in Equestria. Rarity's personality is similar to that of Scarlett O'Hara, the histrionic anti-heroine of Gone With the Wind. Many of Rarity's lines are rephrased from lines Scarlett says in the 1939 movie. Mannerism Rarity's vocabulary is formal, and she is prone to use complex words and more sophisticated, refined phrasing than her friends. As a fashionista, often would she use French-based terms in her vernacular. She speaks with a cultivated trans-Atlantic dialect, and shares some mannerisms with similarly accented Hollywood actresses, such as Katharine Hepburn. However, Rarity sometimes gets carried away with her attention to detail. In Look Before You Sleep, she has difficulty tearing herself away from fixing a messy bookcase despite the much bigger problem of a tree that crashed into Twilight's bedroom. In Winter Wrap Up, she becomes so preoccupied with fixing Twilight's messy bird's nest that she spends nearly the entire day on it, when she was supposed to be making hundreds of other nests. Rarity shows herself to be tough and resourceful in dealing with the Diamond Dogs in A Dog and Pony Show. Even though the others are worried she would panic over how dirty the underground was, Rarity takes control of the situation quite well, manipulating the Diamond Dogs into releasing her and even letting her have several carts full of gems. Rarity's properness and aversion to messiness clashes with Applejack's brashness in Look Before You Sleep. They bicker throughout the episode about each other's attitude, but finally unite in the face of adversity, which takes the form of a tree crashing into Twilight's library. They work together and eventually come to enjoy the company of one another, which becomes more apparent in later episodes. In Over a Barrel, Rarity is baffled at the level of care Applejack bestows on a tree that she named Bloomberg which is being taken to Appleloosa for planting. Rarity complains that the tree received a private coach; however, Applejack takes this in stride and takes no offense at Rarity's complaints. Rarity later provides Applejack with much-appreciated support in their attempts to protect Appleloosa from a buffalo stampede. Rarity even comes to compliment Applejack's manners when she doesn't charge Rarity for food from her stand at the Grand Galloping Gala in The Best Night Ever. Generosity While Rarity cares about her appearance quite a bit, being averse to stepping in mud or risking getting herself messy, she is not above getting her hooves dirty when it comes to helping her friends or creatures in need. She slices off her own tail to calm down the sea serpent in Friendship is Magic, part 2, willing to sacrifice her beauty to help restore the distressed serpent's "fabulosity". This action earns her the element of generosity, and later, when she activates the element, her tail is restored. She has been out on rugged pursuits such as in Dragonshy and Over a Barrel in aid of her friends. The episode Suited For Success heavily revolves around Rarity's generosity, as she is willing to not only make five unique dresses for her friends for the Grand Galloping Gala, but additionally re-work and redesign them as her friends desire. The overworking runs Rarity ragged and, despite her friends' designs being horrible fashion-wise, she continues making them in order to satisfy her friends. At the end of the episode, Rarity's friends realize that her original dresses were beautiful and perfectly matched for each of them, and that they should not have taken advantage of Rarity's generosity. Rarity is hypnotized by Discord into believing a large boulder is actually a giant diamond in The Return of Harmony Part 1. For a short moment she resists the temptation, but soon she becomes brainwashed, obsessively protecting her "diamond" and refusing to let anybody near it, as she becomes possessive and greedy. This continues in The Return of Harmony Part 2, where she refuses to part with the boulder and names it "Tom", while additionally hoarding other items she sees as valuable, such as the jewelry of the Elements of Harmony themselves. After the brainwashing is cured, she throws the boulder away and tells her friends to "never speak of this again" in a hushed but assertive whisper. In Sisterhooves Social, Applejack mentions to Rarity that sisterhood is a give-and-take relationship that requires compromise. To this end, Rarity takes part in the Sisterhooves Social with Sweetie Belle while disguised as Applejack. Rarity's generosity is a major plot point of Rarity Takes Manehattan. The unscrupulous fashion designer Suri Polomare uses it against her by asking for some of the unique material Rarity made to "accentuate" her own dresses. Instead, Suri uses the material to copy Rarity's designs. Rarity beats Suri in the end, and pledges not to let the experience sour her on being generous in the future. Career : "Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique and magnifique." : — Rarity's shop slogan in A Dog and Pony Show Rarity works as a fashion designer at Carousel Boutique. Rarity's work ethic and dedication to her customers is depicted in Suited For Success. She initially sews dresses of her own design for her friends, but when they're not satisfied with the result, she sews them brand new dresses under their direction. Rarity stresses herself into making a new set of dresses the way her friends want them, going as far as following all their instructions instead of her own instincts. She is unhappy with the results, even though her friends are very satisfied. When these dresses are devastatingly criticized by "the bigwig fashion hotshot" Hoity Toity, she locks herself in her room, lamenting her ruined career; luckily for her, her friends are able to convince Hoity Toity to hold another fashion show, this time with the original dresses. In the episode A Dog and Pony Show, the pony pop sensation Sapphire Shores visits Rarity's boutique. She claims that she's been planning to "keep an eye on ALL the up and coming fashion designers in all of Equestria", and a local magazine "simply raved about Rarity." Rarity's work is so important to her that during the parasprite crisis in Ponyville in Swarm of the Century, she yells in panic and rushes to her boutique once she realizes the parasprites might get there and eat her work. Rarity is quite willing to let Spike help her out with her work, and shows some concern for his welfare. They go gem-hunting together in A Dog and Pony Show, and she rewards him for his assistance with "the finest reward", a gem, which he holds very dear to him simply for being a gift from Rarity. At the end of the episode, once she has several carts full of gems, she lets Spike indulge on a great number of them. He willingly gives himself as a pin-cushion in Green Isn't Your Color and says he "can't feel a thing" thanks to his thick scales. There's a brief shot of Spike wearing a t-shirt with Rarity's head emblazoned on a heart as a gag about the overt nature of Spike's "secret" crush. Rarity wears a pair of reading glasses while sewing, but there is nothing to suggest that they are for anything more than allowing her to see her stitching much more closely. She also designs the wedding dress for Princess Cadance and the bridesmaid dresses for herself and her friends in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1and A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2. In Rarity Takes Manehattan, Rarity places first at a fashion show hosted by Prim Hemline as part of Manehattan's Fashion Week, despite the machinations of fellow designer Suri Polomare. She manages to wow the crowd with a fashion line made only from fabrics in the Mane 6's hotel room, created with her friends' help in less than a day. In For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils, Rarity is shown to be a regular designer for Sapphire Shores. Skills Magic As a unicorn, Rarity can perform magic and while it may not be up to the standards of Twilight Sparkle, she uses it in connection with making things "fabulous", like gem-finding, dressmaking, and topiary art. She puts on an impressive light display for the fashion show she holds for Hoity Toity in Suited for Success. She uses sewing and cutting tools through telekinesis with the precision needed to make her dresses, manipulating multiple items at once. Her telekinetic ability has a quite extensive range and strength: in Lesson Zero, she is able to pull a couch from her home within a matter of seconds in order to dramatically swoon and collapse upon it. She magically attaches her sheared tail hair to the sea serpent's mustache in Friendship is Magic, part 2, and also reattaches a large branch to a tree in Look Before You Sleep and magically trims its foliage into topiaries. Rarity can also use her magic to expose underground gems, which is a major plot point in the episode A Dog and Pony Show. This spell is copied by Twilight in the same episode, as Rarity had taught it to her some time before. Unlike Twilight, who had to learn it, Rarity's gem-finding ability developed on its own: her story in The Cutie Mark Chronicles shows this ability activating by itself without her knowingly casting a spell. She also repairs the broken wheel of a taxi cab in Rarity Takes Manehattan. Close Combat Despite Rarity's delicate nature and formal personality, she has shown a propensity for the martial arts. Like the other ponies, Rarity gets into physical conflicts throughout the series: she delivers a kick to the manticore's face in Friendship is Magic, part 2, knocks away Twilight with a whip of her flank in Sonic Rainboom, and delivers a flying kick with a martial arts stance to Applejack with a karate yell in The Return of Harmony Part 2. In Dragon Quest, she threatens the teenage dragons, viciously telling them that she will "rip them to pieces" if they try to hurt Spike. Additionally, in Ponyville Confidential, she kicks open the door to her bedroom in the same manner as a police officer in order to confront Sweetie Belle, as well as knocking three Wonderbolts into unconsciousness in mid-air while falling in Sonic Rainboom, though in this particular case, it is unintentional. She is also able to defeat several changelings using various hoof-to-hoof combat moves in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2. Feminine charms Rarity has a talent for charming male ponies to help her and her friends. In The Best Night Ever, she talks two stallions into pulling the carriage to take her and her friends to the Grand Galloping Gala, and in Putting Your Hoof Down, she sweet-talks another into selling her his piece of asparagus, which Fluttershy needs for Angel's salad. Credit *My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Wiki